ndia may be loved or hated, may be an object of devotion or Iderision. But there is hardly anyone Indian who is indifferent or The Idea of India lukewarm about this country. “You can take Indians out of India, but Bollywood as India’s Cultural Ambassador you can’t take India out of Indians” – so goes a popular saying. Most Madhu Kishwar people of Indian origin settled in foreign countries stay obsessed with India, no matter how far they move away. This engagement takes Four decades later, Alisha Chinai open their chests like Hanuman did many forms – some express it echoed the same sentiment in her for Ram and Sita, people would find through anger and outrage at the tantalising popular song Made in the map of India inscribed within. raging corruption, inefficiency and India. In the music video to the song, India indeed defies lack of will to set things right. Some Alisha wears a skin-tight western comprehension, especially for those others make a profession of outfit with a plunging neckline and who try to understand it through critiquing its many real and imagined bare shoulders. She looks like a books, research studies and as an ills. Still others turn rabid nightclub dancer from a Hollywood intellectual exercise. The ‘Real apologists. Most quietly sustain film but she croons soulfully for a India’ can only be understood by their faith in “The Wonder that was “Made in India” heart: connecting to the emotions of its India”. Dekhi hai saari duniya, Japan se people (as did Mahatma Gandhi), by Dil Hai Hindustani lekar Russia, understanding what touches their Not just a nation, India Australia se lekar America. hearts, what makes them perform represents a distinct civilisation and Dekha hai pyar ka sapna, miraculous feats or what makes them universe of values. It defies Dil chahe jo ho apna, indulge in the most brutal violations definition, containing an incredible Mil jayega ek sathiya, ek deshiya. of human rights; what makes diversity of peoples, religions, belief Made in India, made in India, Indians accept corruption as a way systems, languages, social Dil chahiye bas made in India. of life and what makes them rise structures, topographies, weather against it in rage and indignation. conditions and knowledge systems. The ‘Real India’ can only be known The ‘Real India’ can only India is not very easy to know and by coming to understand what understand. Yet Indians are very be understood by tuning triggers off large-heartedness and direct and open, they wear their into the hearts of its tolerance for others, no matter how hearts on their sleeves. You can people, rather than by different their values and appearances, and what evokes recognise ‘Indianness’ by tuning their external trappings. into people’s hearts rather than by vicious and mean responses. Under what circumstances do Indian men their external trappings. Raj Kapoor worship and revere women as expressed it very aptly in the famous The message is clear – you may Saraswatis, Lakshmis and Durgas song from the film Shree 420, dress and dance like Madonna or incarnate, and what makes some of challenging the “Be Indian, Buy Michael Jackson, you may wear them turn so woman-hating that they Indian” variety of nationalism jeans or mini-skirts, you may look like kill their own daughters as unwanted promoted by the government in the a vamp or a call girl – all those are burdens and torture their daughters- 1950’s: just externals. What really matters is in-law to death? Mera Joota hai Japani, that your heart stays Indian. Any Despite large doses of low-level Yeh patloon Englishtani, time our NRIs get deeply nostalgic vulgarity and mushy melodrama, Sar par lal topi Russi or sentimental, they proclaim their Bollywood films are perhaps the Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani. deep attachment to their Indian roots best contemporary guide to (My shoes are Japanese, these not by showing you their investment understanding what moves the pants are English; on my head I wear portfolios or listing the number of Indian heart, what values Indians of a red Russian cap and yet my heart times they visit India every year, but today endorse as quintessentially remains Indian.) by proclaiming that if they could tear their own. 4 MANUSHI Forced to a Reappraisal melodrama and predictability of its Those among MANUSHI’s readers Bollywood films are stories. An important reason for this who are familiar with the exported to more than a enduring resonance is that the two great unflatteringly critical film reviews I hundred countries, which is epics of India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which are also the two wrote in the magazine’s early issues extraordinary, given that are likely to be surprised by such a foundational texts of the Indic radical change in my evaluation of the these films have hardly civilisation, have provided a very role played by Bollywood films. I wish been allowed to avail widely acceptable base for the artistic to clarify at the outset that this is a themselves of any development of Indian commercial re-evaluation that has been forced on legitimate funding. cinema. They are often critiqued, their me. Whenever my own views seem values challenged, even parodied – but contrary to popular opinion, as the stories within stories of these great someone who believes in respecting the export of films through illegal epics remain the foundational people’s choices, I believe it is my channels. Dubai became the centre of discourse of Bombay cinema. They duty to try and understand things distribution for Indian films, cementing function as meta-texts of Indian from their perspective and to be Bollywood’s ties with the underworld tradition and dharmic values. The willing to modify my own views even further. Ironically, it is this worldview they propagate and the accordingly, especially if popular underworld-dominated industry that values they uphold have proved opinion does not seem to be harmful has chosen to churn out sentimental remarkably resilient despite pressures to others. Treating other people’s morality tales as entertainers and has for change. choices with disdain when they do assumed the mantle of inculcating As Dhirubhai Sheth aptly puts it: not conform to one’s own values and what are commonly believed to be “Bollywood films have come to play tastes invariably strengthens Indian sanskars. the same role as pauranic kathas authoritarian tendencies. This is why The New Moral Custodians (tales) and the bhakti movement did in I have revised many of my positions Yet, it is this moral mantle that is key the medieval period when Vedic on important social and political to understanding Bollywood’s appeal knowledge went into decline and the issues and it is what has compelled for its audiences, despite the low-brow original sources of the civilisational me to review my attitude to moral code began drying up. At such a Bollywood films. time the pauranic kathas took on the I began taking Bollywood films task of preaching morality and giving seriously and looking at them in a new people a spiritual anchor through way only after I experienced their narrative accounts of mythical heroes popularity abroad and saw how this and heroines whose lives demonstrated industry had positioned itself as through personal example the desired India’s most powerful cultural social and moral code.” ambassador; that too without any This is the same epoch in which official encouragement or patronage. Tulsidas rewrote the Valmiki Bollywood films are exported to more Ramayana as the Ramcharit Manas than a hundred countries, which is in the bhakti idiom, and presented the extraordinary given that these films mythic hero Ram as the Maryada have hardly been allowed to avail Purushottam (the best of men, the themselves of any legitimate funding. upholder of the moral code) as Denied industry status, Bollywood opposed to the very humanly flawed could not raise finances legally, leaving Ram of Valmiki’s Ramayana. This is even the best of its directors to rely on the period when India faced repeated black money and finance from the invasions and the polytheistic Indic underworld. Our unimaginative and civilisation faced ideological, bureaucratic censor boards have a theological and social onslaughts history of needless harassment and from monotheistic Islam. This historic creating hurdles in clearing films for clash was very creatively ameliorated screening. Until recently, India’s The romantic icons of the 50s: through powerful socio-religious closed-door economy necessitated Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Shree 420. movements – the bhakti movement No.139 5 within the Hindu fold and Sufism enthusiasm. I would like to emphasise countries are their newspapers, TV within Islam – which built bridges of that these responses are based mostly channels and select intellectuals from communication between the two on Bollywood hits which became a India who act as native informants, contrary worldviews. The shrines of Sufi rage internationally as well. (This is “interpreting” to the white world our pirs became common centres of not to overlook the fact that many social evils and problems. worship for Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Bollywood also makes many crude, Western media have made India’s The affirmation of a distinct moral vulgar and violent melodramas. dowry murders and satis far more code, just as the pauranic kathas However, it is significant that most wondrous, exotic and famous than the once did, was a task that befell Indian of these are commercial flops.) Taj Mahal, the Konarak Temple, the cinema, given its birth at a time when When one travels to Europe, Qutab Minar, the ghats of Varanasi North America or Australia, India India faced a major ideological and other such renowned symbols of (for those few who are at all onslaught from the imperialist West.